Sewing machine attachment



Nov. 5, 1963 M. L. GEHRINGER SEWING MACHINE ATTACHMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 1Filed Dec. 6, 1961 a MW. M n O H T A W M 2 Na 5 1L. m 0,. .m v Q S m mmM on N 2 E Q. 2: I. 1., A W/ mm A 0m" .\rH I! 1 M L A 9 0* W L il l i AQ a i 1.1 I I HOA 1 H 3 6f m Q m 1963 M. L. GEHRINGER 3,1 7

SEWING MACHINE ATTACHMENT Filed Dec. 6, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 F I g. 6

53 39 INVENTOR A Mervin L; Gehringer VIII/1110711111114 lb Ia a hisATTORNEY Nov. 5, 1953 M. GEHRINGER 3,109,397

SEWING MACHINE ATTACPWIENT Filed Dec. 6, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTORMervin L. Gehrmger TT R Y .4

United States Patent 3,109,397 SEWIN G MACHINE ATTACHMENT Mervin L.Gehringer, 86 Noble St., Kutztown, Pa. Filed Dec. 6, 1961, Ser. No.157,362 3 Claims. (Cl. 112105) This invention relates to an attachmentfor button sewing machines to enable rapid sewing of hooks.

Hooks and eyes have generally been sewn on garments by hand, which isvery tedious and time consuming and which increases cost appreciably.

Another disadvantage of hooks sewn by conventional methods is thathooks, being sewn only through two eyes, pivot readily and make itextremely diflicult to slip the hook through the cooperating eye.Moreover, hooks, after predetermined use, will finally become detachedfrom the garment and lost.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel attachment foruse on a conventional button sewing machine which will automatically sewboth eyes and the shank portion of the hook so as to overcome theabovementioned disadvantages, that is, to enable rapid sewing of thehook in a manner so as to firmly hold it against the garment withoutallowing it to pivot, therefore greatly facilitating hooking to the eyeand preventing detachment from the garment.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide an attachment foruse on a button sewing machine, which attachment has jaws for holdingthe eyes of the hook and jaws for holding the loop or hook portion ofthe hook, one of which latter jaws having an upstanding slip stitchfinger which rests on the loop of the hook to cause the stitch to slipdown over the finger and to be pulled back under the loop to enablesewing of the shank part of the hook portion despite overhanging of thehook.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel attachment for abutton sewing machine to enable automatic sewing of eyes of hook and eyepairs.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study ofthe following description taken with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective, side View of a portion of a standard buttonsewing machine equipped with a hook sewing attachment embodying thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of a portion of the machine andattachment shown in FIG. 1 illustrating jaws of the attachment inposition to support a hook while its eyes and shank portion are sewn inthe manner shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view taken from the opposite end of that shownin FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the jaws of the attachment, shown in FIGS. 1and 2, illustrating in dash and dot lines the open position of the jaws;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing how a hook is sewn to a garment by use ofthe attachment illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 4 inclusive; and,

FIG. 6 is an enlarged, fragmentary cross-sectional view taken alongsideslip finger 39.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 1 of the drawing, numeral 1 denotesa bed having slidably mounted thereon a cloth plate 1a and numeral 2denotes a needle head having a holder 4, stiff wire 6 and needle 5, thelatter adapted to penetrate a central hole in plate la-all forming partof a conventional 2 and 4 hole button sewing machine, such as LewisModel 200-1, Union Special, manufactured by Lewis Invisible StitchMachine Co. of St. Louis, Mo., and shown and described in Nelson U.S.Patent 2,511,367 dated June 13, 1950.

As described in said patent, the button sewing machine also includes avertically moving lever 3 supporting a rod 10 engageable with arm 13secured to boss 14and includes a stud 8 depending from underneath thehead supporting arm, which stud is encircled by return spring 9. Bracket15, having a slot therein, is adapted to slide horizontally relative toa stationary pin extending upwardly therethrough mounted on bracket 22.Bracket 15 has arms 16 pivotal about pivot pins 17 to enable slidingback when bracket 22 is lifted. The parts described so far areconventional parts of a button hole machine, which are described ingreater detail in Patent No. 2,511,367, therefore further detaileddescription herein is deemed unnecessary.

Suffice it to say that the button sewing machine, as shown and describedin said patent, includes stitchforming mechanism for effecting theformation of stitches successively, some mechanism for effectingrelative lateral movement of the button with respect to thestitch-forming mechanism, and mechanism for effecting a cyclic operationof the stitch-forming mechanism. These mechanisms are conjointlyoperated to efiect a series of stitches with the thread passing insuccessive stitch-forming operations through difierent holes of thebutton and in consequence over the portion of the button between theholes. In this manner the button is sewn or bound to the fabric.

In the button sewing machine described in the patent, relative lateralmovement between the button and needle to sew thread through differentholes in the button on successive strokes is eflFected byshifting thebutton, by means of a button clamp having jaws, in timed relation withrespect to the needle. This mechanism serves to vibrate the button clampso that first one and then another pair of holes is aligned with theneedle. At the end of the operation, the last several stitches areeffected through the same hole to prevent unravelling of the thread.

The present invention employs the same motion for sewing hooks and eyesas used for sewing buttons. However, sewing of the shank or hook portionpresents a very difficult problem, which has been solved by devising aspecial slip-stitch finger 39 that operates in a unique manner to sewabout the shank of the hook.

The present invention relates solely to an attachment, denoted generallyby numeral 12, to adapt a button sewing machine so as to sew the eyesand shank of a hook to a cloth in the manner illustrated in FIG. 5.

As shown more clearly in FIGS. 2 and 4, the main purpose of theattachment, embodying the present invention, is to operate a set of jaws33, 34 and 35, which are adapted to hold the eyes 53 of the hook of FIG.5 within the triangular, grooved notches at the ends of these jaws alsofor operating a pair of jaws 36, 40 having at the ends thereof anattachment 38, secured by screws and an end portion 42, respectively,for holding the hook or loop portion of the hook shown in FIG. 5. Theattachment 38 has an integral upstanding slip-stitch finger 39 whichforms a very important part of the invention and which rests on top ofthe loop of the hook. As the needle shifts up over the top of theslip-stitch finger 39, the stitch slips down over the finger and ispulled back under the loop of the hook as it sews stitches 55b (seeFIGS. 5 and 6).

When the sewing operation is completed, the jaws, such as 36, and 40,are moved outwardly to the dot and dash outline position, shown in FIG.4, and in so doing, levers 37, and 41, respectively, pivot about pins30, extending through split cylinders 29, so as to move backwardly armsof adjustable length containing knurled adjusting nuts 23 as well assplit cylinders 20 and 24 pivoted at 21 and 25, respectively. In sodoing, they efiect backward sliding movement of carriages 19, whichmovement is resisted by the compression of helical springs 19a, servinga? as return springs for normally holding the jaws in the clampingposition.

Turning of the knurled adjusting nuts 23 lengthens or shortens thedistance between pivot pins 21 and 25, so as to adjust the swing of jaws36 and 40.

Lever 44, which is pivotally mounted on bracket 22, has a slot 47 andthumb screw 46 for holding the lever in clamped position at eitherextremity of movement, and which lever may be moved by pushing against athumb piece 45. ,Turning to FIGS. 2 and 3, the button sewing machineintermittently pushes the wedge element 51 downwardly, thereby turninglever 49 downwardly about its pivot so as to swing lever arm 14b in adirection to efiect compression of springs 19a and openings of the jaws36 and 40, through intermediate linkage including those having adjustingnuts 23. v

yln operation, the eyes of a hook 53 are slipped into and held by thegrooved ends of jaws 33, 34 and 35. Jaws 33, 34 and 35 and jaws 36 and40 are automatically oscillated laterally in unison by the machine so asto sew a row consisting of six horizontal stitches 54 (see FIG. '5).

The button sewing machine mechanism then automatiorally longitudinallyshifts both sets of levers approximately V of an inch, leaving one crossover stitch 54a, and automatically oscillates the levers laterally andsews the second row of six stitches 55b approximately inch long.Afterwards the threads are automatically cut-0E. This completes themachine cycle. Thus, although the needle laterally traverses the hookportion of hook 53 in sewing one row, the thread will be slippedunderneath it by slip finger 39 to enable sewing the shank of the hookto the cloth supported On plate 1a.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided an efficient attachment forautomatically sewing hooks by the use of a button sewing machine, whichattachment can be easily and quickly substituted for the button sewingattachment thereof; furthermore, I have provided a novel slip-stitchfinger which enables sewing of the shank portion of the loop or hookeven though the hook overhangs it while sewing, thereby very tightlysewing the hook so that it will not pivot away from the garment when itis attempted to pass the hook through the eye; furthermore, I haveprovided a hook sewing attachment which greatly speeds the time forsewing hooks and which considerably reduces the cost of sewing agarment.

While I have illustrated and described a single specific embodiment ofmy invention, it will be understood that this is by way of illustrationonly, and that various changes and modifications may be made within thecontemplation of my invention and within the scope of the followingclaims.

I claim:

1. A hook sewing attachment for a four but-ton sewing machine,comprising supporting means shaped to snugly receive the eyes of a hookand providing open spaces adapted to extend along both sides of theshank of the hook throughout the length of the hooked portion thereof,means for causing relative reciprocating movement between saidsupporting means and the needle of said machine adapted to cause theneedle to reciprocate from one to the other of the eyes of said hookthence to a new position reciprocating from one side to the other of thehooked portion of the hook so as to direct the stitching from the eyesof the hook to the end portion of the shank portion underneath thehooked portion of the hook, including a slip stitch finger mounted onsaid supporting means and having a downwardly inclined, substantiallyhook shaped portion overlying and in the same vertical plane as thehooked portion of the hook, the extremity of said hook shaped portion ofsaid finger adapted to be substantially in contact with the extremity ofthe hook so as to guide the thread over the end of the hook and backunderneath the hook shaped portion thereof, during said reciprocation,and in so doing, enabling stitches to be formed on the end of the shankportion underneath the hooked shaped portion of the hook, so as tofirmly attach the hook onto a garment without any possibility ofpivoting about the eyes as a center and effecting nonalignment with aseparate eye fastener.

2. A hook sewing attachment as recited in claim 1 together with springmeans for yieldingly holding the hooked shaped portion of the hook inplace.

3. A hook sewing attachment as recited in claim 1 wherein saidsupporting means is mounted on a pair of spring closed, openable jawsadapted to support the eyes of the hook and a second pair of springclosed, openable jaws adapted to support the hooked portion of the hook.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS884,629 Wilkinson et al Apr. 14, 1908 1,032,017 McComb July 9, 19121,101,134 Lyons June 23, 1914 1,288,101 M-asterson Dec. 17, 19181,294,927 McCann Feb. 18, 1919 2,788,756 Cushing Apr. 16, 1957

1. A HOOK SEWING ATTACHMENT FOR A FOUR BUTTON SEWING MACHINE, COMPRISINGSUPPORTING MEANS SHAPED TO SNUGLY RECEIVE THE EYES OF A HOOK ANDPROVIDING OPEN SPACES ADAPTED TO EXTEND ALONG BOTH SIDES OF THE SHANK OFTHE HOOK THROUGHOUT THE LENGTH OF THE HOOKED PORTION THEREOF, MEANS FORCAUSING RELATIVE RECIPROCATING MOVEMENT BETWEEN SAID SUPPORTING MEANSAND THE NEEDLE OF SAID MACHINE ADAPTED TO CAUSE THE NEEDLE TORECIPROCATE FROM ONE TO THE OTHER OF THE EYES OF SAID HOOK THENCE TO ANEW POSITION RECIPROCATING FROM ONE SIDE TO THE OTHER OF THE HOOKEDPORTION OF THE HOOK SO AS TO DIRECT THE STITCHING FROM THE EYES OF THEHOOK TO THE END PORTION OF THE SHANK PORTION UNDERNEATH THE HOOKEDPORTION OF THE HOOK, INCLUDING A SLIP STITCH FINGER MOUNTED ON SAIDSUPPORTING MEANS AND HAVING A DOWNWARDLY INCLINED, SUBSTANTIALLY HOOKSHAPED PORTION OVERLYING AND IN THE SAME VERTICAL